RECENT discussions
Discussions
Commentary and Discussion From the Retail Community
Diamonds Are a Terrorist’s Best Friend
A new movie, Blood Diamond, starring Jennifer Connelly, Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou has Americans looking at bling in a whole new light. The movie looks at how rebel…
BrainTrust Advice 2006: ‘Told You So, Macy’s’
You could say 2006 has been a lot of things, but if you work for Macy’s, one thing you couldn’t say was that it was boring. The retailer began…
Stew Leonard’s Celebrates Christmas
Stew Leonard’s is one grocer that knows how to entertain its shoppers and move products. This time of year, it’s moving a lot of Christmas trees. In fact, the company…
Safeway’s Burd Goes to Washington
Steve Burd, chairman, president and CEO of Safeway, has been calling for healthcare reform for years and now he has gone to Capitol Hill to draw increased attention to an…
Personal Shoppers Relieve Holiday Stress
There’s so much to do around the holidays and very little time to do it in. That’s why top retailers are looking to make life and buying a little easier…
GHQ Cover Story 12/06: Ethnic Education
If a consumer lives in Arizona, she can go to her local Food City and come face to face with a mariachi band, a fiesta, complete with games and clowns,…
BrainTrust Advice 2006: ‘Told You So, Home Depot’
It’s not over, but 2006 has certainly been a busy year for Home Depot. RetailWire followed the developments at Home Depot closely over the year and, as is usually the…
Wal-Mart Sticks to Vendor Relations Code
The recent departure of Julie Roehm from Wal-Mart has thrown on a spotlight on the company’s strict policies concerning relations with vendors. Ms. Roehm, it has been reported, was…
Kroger Alum Sargent Joins Its Board
The newest member of Kroger’s board of directors is no stranger to the company. Ron Sargent, the chairman and CEO of Staples, spent 10 years working for Kroger in a…
Chain Store Age: ‘Tis the Season for Item Movement
Last-minute shoppers are navigating among dwindling stock levels and price slashes in hopes of completing their gift-giving obligations. And retailers are probably relying on two solutions to lure in harried…
Merger Creates Stronger Union
Next year, the United Food and Commercial Workers believe they will go into negotiations with northern California retailers holding a much stronger hand than they did in 2004. The reason…
The Lands’ End Brand Plan: Insanity or Genius?
Shopping for a winter coat or cashmere sweater for the holidays? How about getting Peppermint Crunch chocolate wafers, a Panasonic 42″ Plasma Television, a China Pearl Necklace, a NordicTrack Audio…
R&FF Retailer: Face 2 Face
Part 1: Vinnie Vendor has a problem with Rhonda Retailer. He thinks the two parties could accomplish much more together if Rhonda would make her customer data more “freely” available…
Groups Debate Regulating Functional Food Claims
A number of consumer groups are looking for the government to do a better and quicker job of evaluating the health claims made by a variety of functional food products,…
Whole Foods and Central Market Experiment
The American classical music composer Charles Ives once said, “Every great inspiration is but an experiment.” Based on the rollout of two new experimental concept stores in the Dallas/Fort…
Trade Promotion: Who decides?
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year by HBC manufacturers to get their products promoted by their retail customers. Ideally, this should be a joint effort as the…
BrainTrust Query: Is the world ready for “cultured meat”?
Several weeks ago, we asked whether consumers were ready for meat products coming from cloned animals. But what if there were no animals involved at all? Does that make the…
Mr. Clean Gets Ready to Wash a lot of Cars
Procter & Gamble is going into the car wash business — really. The consumer products giant has gained approval to build and test its first Mr. Clean Performance Car…
Tesco Offers More Details on U.S. Plans
Tesco is prepared to spend up to $2 billion over the next five years as it looks to stake its claim to the American grocery market. The British retailer is…
Best Buy Realigns Work Environment for Results
Best Buy is looking for better results. The company, according to the Dec. 11 BusinessWeek cover story, has gone off in a radical direction to recreate its corporate culture and…
Martha Getting Into Food Biz
She’s done television, videos, cookbooks, magazines, housewares, paints, furniture, time in jail (we know, cheap shot), housing communities and now Martha Stewart is getting into the food business. Where (categories,…
